Darth Maul was not the man, he was a marketing gimmick. But a pretty good one.
Wars probably has more casual fans than Trek. Pitting one set of hardcore fans against the other, I'd probably say Wars fans are worse. Star Trek is, by nature, nerdy. Star Wars gets this kind of devotion without really warranting it.
Personally, I find the old Star Wars movies to be fine, but nothing special. I do sleep on Star Wars sheets, but for the retro hipness of it. The only Star Trek series I'll watch is Next Generation, and that extremely rarely. So as far as which series is better, they're pretty equal to me.